After the Cubs missed on Masahiro "We think he's a No. 3 Starter – Cashman" Tanaka, the Cubs went to a fall back plan. They signed Jason Hammel to a 1-year, $6 million dollar deal. Hammel, who has been good at times and bad most others, is a classic pump-and-dump candidate a la Feldman/Baker/numerous others. Do you remember the Scott Hairston …
Better Know a Cub: Jose Veras
As GW astutely pointed out, the 2014 Cubs are headhunting directly from the 2013 Astros bullpen. On the surface, that sounds terrible. In practice, the Cubs have poached the only two good members of that pen, for a collective $5 million and change. $4 million of that this year will go to Jose Veras, the "closer" of the Astros last …
Better Know A Cub: George Kottaras
George Kottaras and Theo Epstein have a history. Acquired in 2006 for 5 starts of David Wells, Kottaras spent the first few years of his career as a top catching prospect, with great patience, moderate pop, and the ability to play passable defense. As time took hold of George, he lost most of those talents, and all of his star …
Better Know a Cub: Nate Schierholtz
When Nate Schierholtz signed with the Cubs, he was coming off of two pretty identical seasons: G PA AB HR AVG OBP SLG OPS OPS+ 2011 27 SFG NL 115 362 335 42 93 22 1 9 41 7 4 21 61 …